Case Number 01856

THE FIVE HEARTBEATS

The Charge

The rise and fall of a Motown-style vocal group.

Opening Statement

Motown Records is credited with discovering a vast number of African American
musicians and singers through the years, and many of these performers went on to
have great careers that spanned the racial barriers of the '60s, making Motown
Records something of cultural significance. Comedian Robert Townsend and
co-writer Keenan Ivory Wayans bring us The Five Heartbeats, the story of
a fictional vocal group living the rags-to-riches dream in the Motown Era, and
now Fox has brought it to DVD.

Facts of the Case

Five African American youths, Donald "Duck" Matthews (Townsend,
The Meteor Man), Eddie King, Jr. (Michael Wright, The Principal),
J.T. Matthews (Leon, Cool Runnings), Terrance "Dresser"
Williams (Harry J. Lennix, Love And Basketball), and Anthony "Choir
Boy" Stone (Tico Wells, Trespass) have formed a vocal group in the
Motown style and compete in ghetto talent competitions with the hopes of rising
to the top. Unfortunately for them, a lot of these competitions are rigged and
The Five Heartbeats find themselves on the outside looking in until they meet up
with Jimmy Potter (Chuck Patterson), who agrees to refine their act and manage
their careers despite past failures.

Time passes and suddenly The Five Heartbeats find themselves wowing
audiences and making women swoon (a superpower that would make Superman
envious). They soon draw the attention of Big Red Davis (Hawthorne James,
Amistad), a slimy, corrupt reekazoid of a record producer who wants the
boys recording for him. At this point we get the hint that Jimmy has had past
issues with Red, and declines any sort of offer, but every other record label
wants to take The Heartbeats' songs and have them recorded by a white
vocal group. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with Jimmy and the boys, so they
turn back to Red who woos them with fancy cars, houses, and jewelry.

The Five Heartbeats quickly become successful and ultimately succumb to the
dangers of success, such as rampant womanizing, bitter infighting and jealousy,
natural sibling rivalry, drugs and alcohol, and greed. Jimmy is sold down the
river by Eddie, and when he doesn't give in to Red's demands he's murdered,
driving a spike through the group who replaces Eddie with "Flash"
Turner (John Canada Terrell, Mo' Better Blues). Unfortunately, Flash is
only out for himself and uses the Heartbeats as a springboard for his own solo
career. The years pass and we slowly see the Heartbeats, the musical act, and
the Heartbeats, the longtime friends, disintegrate.

The Evidence

It was quite obvious from watching The Five Heartbeats that this film
was a labor of love for Robert Townsend, who also directed. The story begins in
1965 and takes us pretty much up into the mid-'70s (though a bookend to the
story takes place in 1991) and the music styles and fashions are all properly
recreated with a tremendously modest budget. This is helped greatly Stanley
Clarke's riveting musical score, which lovingly dips, swings and rides the
crests and valleys of the Motown sound. If you have any appreciation for this
style of music, you're in for a treat. If The Five Heartbeats had
received proper attention when it was released, perhaps it could have done for
R&B what The Blues Brothers ended up doing for blues music.

Clarke's score, naturally, is in turn greatly assisted by the surprising
vocal talent of the principle actors. I guess I shouldn't have been too
surprised since they were probably auditioned extensively before they got the
part, but you can certainly tell they aren't lip-syncing (or, if they are, they
did a great job of covering it up). The cast, as a whole, exhibits terrific
acting prowess, especially Michael Wright as the troubled Eddie King. His
drinking causes a number of problems with the group, which causes him to sell
out Jimmy, and this in turn causes a vast amount of guilt over Jimmy's fate.
Wright's multi-layered performance brings the cast together and allows them all
to portray three-dimensional characters with a level of humanity that you simply
don't get with cardboard characters or clichés that you find in so many
other films. Additionally, Hawthorne James' Big Red Davis simply couldn't have
been creepier if he'd been covered in spiders. The man oozed a level of hidden
malevolence that made the character work from his first scene to his sudden exit
from the film.

The Five Heartbeats has been given a credible anamorphic transfer by
Fox. That is to say, that I found no discernible problems with the transfer in
the way of edge enhancement, and all colors were properly displayed at all
times. Some of the darker scenes occasionally exhibited some graininess, but I
can chalk this one up to the age of the master print and maybe even the low
budget production values. Please note that this does not distract from the film
itself. The sound may not have a 5.1 mix, but this does not prevent a truly
electric sound experience. The four channels are properly utilized and allow the
audience to experience the music the way it was intended. The Five
Heartbeats runs somewhat light on the special features, giving us a
theatrical trailer and some television spots, a small featurette about the
movie, and a profile of Robert Townsend. There's nothing earth-shattering here,
at all, and I would suggest that this film's admirers would have welcomed a
director's commentary.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

There are really two overall problems with The Five Heartbeats. The
first problem lies with the predictability of the plot. If you've seen a couple
of episodes of "VH-1's Behind the Music," you'll have a pretty good
idea of what's in store for the characters in this movie. Alcohol and drug
problems are a given, as well as the infighting. And it would just not have been
right if there hadn't been some sort of statement in regards to the greedy
record moguls who got rich on the talents of their stars, a number of whom died
in poverty. There are a couple of nifty twists, but unfortunately, you can see
most of them coming a good 10 to 15 minutes before they happen.

The second real problem is with the lack of any cohesion with time, which
flies by at unheard of and indiscernible speeds, though intermittently we're
informed of what year it is. The difficulties are compounded when Townsend
simply tries to do too much with the story. Each character seems to have some
fatal flaw that interrupts the group dynamic, and each of these flaws is dealt
with throughout the ten years or so this film covers. It was as though Townsend
wanted to take five plots from "VH-1's Behind the Music" and apply it
to one story. The pacing isn't nearly as mind-numbingly brisk as it was in the
German opus Mephisto, but there were times when it came close. In the
hands of a more capable director, maybe The Five Heartbeats wouldn't have
felt as rushed as it did, but as it stands Townsend should either have cut a
couple of subplots out of the film or extended the run time by half an hour. I'm
not sure which option would have been better, however. Since the time whisks by
at unfathomable speed, the various subplots involving the bandmates are given
simple lip service. This turns the ending, in which everything comes full circle
for The Five Heartbeats, into a rushed and forced conclusion. This should have
been the emotional highlight of the film, but it ultimately doesn't work and
comes off as a cliché, which is unfortunate given the effort put into
The Five Heartbeats.

Closing Statement

There are numerous shortcomings with The Five Heartbeats, but the
acting performances and the music may allow you to overlook them. If you like
this style of music you will probably enjoy this film, and in that case, I'd
recommend it.

The Verdict

Despite some misgivings, I'm going to exhibit a bit of leniency and let
The Five Heartbeats go free.